The civil aviation policy is on the anvil as the government is in the final stages of ironing out the creases. The controversial 5/20 rule, which has become a bone of contention between the incumbent and newer airlines, is set to be changed. In all probability, the five-year clause may go, but airlines may still need to have 20 aircraft if they want to fly overseas. Auctioning of bilaterals is another area which needs to be tackled. And the turnaround of Air India continues to be a priority area for the government. Minister of state (MoS) for civil aviation Mahesh Sharma, in an interview with Bilal Abdi and Sumit Jha, discusses all these issues. Excerpts:
The incumbent airlines are demanding removal of route dispersal guidelines if the 5/20 rule is removed to ensure a level playing field. What is your perspective on this?
Our stand is very clear — the route dispersal guidelines will stay. We may tweak the percentage to be deployed on tier III routes by reducing it from 50% to 35%. The final aviation policy will ensure that there is a level playing field on the whole 5/20 and route dispersal guideline issue. We have different options for tweaking the 5/20 rule, 20 aircraft can remain, but the requirement of five years may go. This is one of the proposals.
What is the rationale behind auctioning of unused bilaterals?
We have still not taken a decision on it. It will be premature to talk about it at this point of time. The group of ministers are at the final stages of clearing the policy, but many of the policy decisions are complex, so we are still ironing out some of the issues.
To Read the News in Full 25/03/16 Sumit Jha and Bilal Abdi/Financial Express
The incumbent airlines are demanding removal of route dispersal guidelines if the 5/20 rule is removed to ensure a level playing field. What is your perspective on this?
Our stand is very clear — the route dispersal guidelines will stay. We may tweak the percentage to be deployed on tier III routes by reducing it from 50% to 35%. The final aviation policy will ensure that there is a level playing field on the whole 5/20 and route dispersal guideline issue. We have different options for tweaking the 5/20 rule, 20 aircraft can remain, but the requirement of five years may go. This is one of the proposals.
What is the rationale behind auctioning of unused bilaterals?
We have still not taken a decision on it. It will be premature to talk about it at this point of time. The group of ministers are at the final stages of clearing the policy, but many of the policy decisions are complex, so we are still ironing out some of the issues.
To Read the News in Full 25/03/16 Sumit Jha and Bilal Abdi/Financial Express
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